PULSATILE DRUG-RELEASE BY ELECTRIC STIMULUS

Electric currents have been applied to polymeric monolithic devices to produce pulsatile drug release. The polymeric matrices used were either electrically charged networks, or polymer-polymer complexes based on hydrogen bonding or electrostatic interactions. Positively charged drug was released in an on-off manner from a negatively charged network. The ionically bound drug was freed from the polymer chains by ion-exchange with He ions. The polymer-polymer interactions in the formed complexes were perturbed by ionization or deionization of one part of the polymer pairs by either increasing or decreasing pH around electrodes. This resulted in polymer surface erosion and pulsatile release of the drugs entrapped in the matrices.